Scotiabank subleases 50K sf from Hudson’s Bay at Brookfield Place

Canada’s Scotiabank inked a deal to sublease roughly 50,000 square feet at Brookfield Place from its neighbor Hudson’s Bay Companies, which is one of a handful of large Downtown tenants looking to shed excess space.

Hudson’s Bay, the Canadian-based parent company of Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor, sublet a full floor at 250 Vesey Street to Scotiabank, which is already a tenant in the building, sources told The Real Deal.

Representatives for the two companies could not be immediately reached for comment. A source with knowledge of the deal said the asking rent was $60 per square foot, but Scotiabank paid up because the space is contiguous with the offices it occupies on the 23rd and 24th floors.

The two companies are both relative newcomers to Brookfield Place, having relocated there at a time when the 8.5 million-square-foot complex, and Lower Manhattan in general, was seeing a resurgence following the financial crisis.

Scotiabank, also known as the Bank of Nova Scotia, inked a deal in 2013 to relocate from Brookfield Property Partners’ 1 Liberty Plaza into 100,000 square feet at 250 Vesey Street.

The following year, Hudson’s Bay made plans to consolidate several offices and relocate its main Midtown headquarters at 12 East 49th Street to Lower Manhattan. The multinational retailer signed a lease for 166,000 square feet at 250 Vesey and another 233,000 square feet nearby at 225 Liberty Street.

But last year, the company announced plans to layoff 2,000 employees in North America by the end of fiscal 2018 in an effort to save $350 million each year, and how has excess space on its hands at Brookfield Place.

Sources said Hudson’s Bay has been quietly making it known that it can make four floors available at 250 Vesey for sublease.

And it’s not the only tenant adding sublet space to the Downtown market.

The Bank of New York Mellon plans to sublease 350,000 square feet at Brookfield’s 225 Liberty Street as the bank consolidates its footprint nearby at 101 Barclay Street.

And Condé Nast has hired JLL to advise the media company on its Lower Manhattan real estate portfolio, which could possibly include subletting several floors it occupies at One World Trade Center.